Na­tion to hon­our our war dead

ONE hun­dred years ago they thought they had seen the “war to end all wars”.

To­day, Aus­tralia’s lead­ers will gather at the Na­tional War Me­mo­rial, which is now be­ing ex­panded to fit in all the many other wars fought since.

Ar­mistice Day 1918 was the end of the Great War, now known as World War I.

Prime Min­is­ter Scott Mor­ri­son and Op­po­si­tion Leader Bill Shorten will ad­dress a crowd at the Na­tional War Me­mo­rial, which will get a $500 mil­lion ex­pan­sion dur­ing the next nine years. The me­mo­rial was orig­i­nally built to mark World War I, but it was ex­panded to in­clude World War II, the Korean War, the Viet­nam War and oth­ers. It has run out of room al­ready. More than 102,000 Aus­tralians are named on the Roll of Hon­our. Min­is­ter for Vet­er­ans’ Af­fairs Dar­ren Ch­ester hopes all Aus­tralians take a minute’s si­lence at 11am to re­mem­ber the more than 60,000 sol­diers who never re­turned from World War I, as well as those cur­rently serv­ing.

From dawn to dusk to­day a beam of light will be pro­jected from the Aus­tralian War Me­mo­rial to Par­lia­ment House, chang­ing from white, pink and red.

An evening vigil will also be held at the tomb of the Un­known Sol­dier.